The One That Got Away
by fireflower297
Summary: Rachel wants nothing more than to become a designer and when it's rumored that celebrity is coming to her small high school, she hopes that this will be her time to shine. Will she get her chance while her step-sisters steal design credit? Or will all her dreams fall down the drain?
1. Chapter 1

Rachel sat in her room, sketching out designs based upon current trends. She sighed, she'd never get to wear any of her designs. They always went to her step-sisters, who would steal all of the credit and once again be hailed as the most fashionable girls on campus. Rachel herself generally found current trends to be strange and never understood why people would wear them.

Rachel was in her senior year of high school. This year, unlike the past three years, Rachel was planning on wearing her own designs for a change. However, one thing stood in her way. Gina, stepmother extraordinaire.

Gina would never let Rachel wear what she wanted. Instead, Gina would give Rachel tattered hand-me-downs to wear that could never be properly fixed. There was no chance that that would change any this year. In addition to making all of her family's clothing, Rachel was pretty much the maid as well.

Speaking of which, "Rachel, help us get ready for school!" screeched Gwendolyn. Rachel rushed to the room where her step-sisters kept all of their clothing and beauty products. Gwendolyn and Alicia always has Rachel do their hair and makeup for school. Gwendolyn had curly platinum blonde hair that she insisted on dying every few weeks to "enhance" the color and Alicia had straight golden blonde hair.

Rachel brushed her coppery bangs to the side of her face before applying light layers of makeup to each face. Gina OK'd each of the twins' makeup before allowing all three of the girls to leave for school.

About one mile from school, the twins dropped Rachel off to walk the rest of the way. Rachel complied, she would probably arrive before the others anyways. So she did, by a good five minutes.

Most years, the first day of school was quiet. Yet this year, people crowded around the front gate, hoping to catch a glimpse of the celebrity rumored to be coming to school. Adam Franks was well known for his roles in the movies and on television. Rumors flew all of the time about him and the most common rumor about him lately was that he was coming to high school in preparation for his next role.

The students and faculty (both male and female) were disappointed. No luxury vehicle arrived to produce the star. Rachel couldn't help but feel a little disappointed herself, she had been planning on asking the star on how to get involved in costume design. She walked to her first class, hoping to get a seat with a good vantage point.

Unfortunately, someone had already beat her to it. He wore a pair of geeky glasses and was furiously writing away in a notebook. Rachel seated herself next to him and folded her arms across her chest. He looked up and threw her a big smile, "Hey, I'm Charles," he said introducing himself.

"Rachel," she replied, putting out a hand for him to shake. He did so and smiled again.

"Alright class, settle down," said Mrs. Anderson, quieting down the class that Rachel and Charles hadn't noticed come in. "Charles, could you please stand up here and introduce yourself?" He followed her instructions and came to stand beside her in front of the class.

"Hi, I'm Charles Worth. I'm from Los Angeles, where I was home schooled and I moved to Philadelphia last month," he said, unenthusiastically in comparison to introducing himself to Rachel. A few scattered people snickered at him.

"Now then, I want each of you to introduce yourself," said Mrs. Anderson, "We'll start in the back and snake our way around."

"Rachel Zara," said Rachel, standing up and sitting back down.

"Harry Blake."

"Ally Turner."

"Eleanor Silver."

"Ariana Rooney."

"Derek Bridges."

"James Fletcher."

"Rose Marie Moore."

"Alex O'Hare," said the last person in the class. Charles nodded and returned to his seat.

Mrs. Anderson spent the rest of class explaining procedures and what would be covered in the class.


	2. Chapter 2

After class, Charles quietly approached Rachel, "Rachel, what class do you have next?"

She looked down at her schedule, "I have AP Art. Why do you want to know?"

"I was simply wondering if we shared more than one class together and it appears that we do." Rachel smiled and started to walk with him to the art room. "So, what is your concentration?" Charles asked.

"You'll see. Be patient. How about you?"

"Fashion photography," he said, grinning at her.

"Really? You don't strike me as the fashion photographer type." They entered the classroom together to be met with the smell of paint. Mr. Walker explained the specifications of being in AP Art before letting the class have some free sketch time. "Why did you move to Philly?" Rachel asked Charles as she continued to work on the design she had been working on earlier.

"Huh?"Charles asked as his daydreams were interrupted. "Oh, my dad got a new job here in Philly." He took off his glasses and rubbed at the sides of his nose.

"Has anyone ever told you that you look like Adam Franks without your glasses on?"

"No," he said, a tone of disbelief in his voice. Charles then pulled out the notebook that he been writing in earlier and started sketching a bird on a tree limb outside the window directly in his view. As Charles drew, Rachel caught a glimpse of a few lines of what he had been writing earlier.

They mentioned teachers, observations of people around him, and phone numbers, like one labeled manager that didn't have a Philadelphia area code. Rachel then continued to work on her design. Feathers laced tightly together into a belt, it had a low-cut off-shoulder neckline, and it also had a flared skirt with a slit starting two inches or so above the knee and went to the floor. Charles and Rachel complimented each other on their work as the bell rang and each headed off to their next class.

Charles headed off to study hall and Rachel made her way towards Math. Boredom won her over and her cerulean eyes slowly drooped closed to blink open at Miss Beaumont asking Rachel a difficult problem.

"I'm sorry, could you please repeat the question?" Rachel asked. Miss Beaumont frustratedly obliged and repeated the question. After working out the problem in her head, Rachel correctly answered.

"That is correct Miss Zara. Now then, please pay attention," Miss Beaumont chastised. For the rest of class, Rachel tried her best to not zone out.

At lunch, she joined up with a few of her old friends. "So, Rachel, who's the new boyfriend?" asked Sarah, who had known Rachel since preschool. She had crazy brown curls and skin the color of milk chocolate.

"Stop smirking at me like that!" Rachel said at the look on her best friend's face. "He's not my boyfriend. He's just my friend!"

Sarah pouted, "Oh, really? Then why is he coming this way?" Rachel spun her head around to see Charles coming towards her.

"He doesn't really know anyone else and people make fun of him," she quickly explained. "Please don't push him away," she whined.

"Hi, Rachel," came Charles voice from behind her.

"Hey Charles. Do you want to sit with us?" Rachel offered. Charles sat down next to Rachel and across from Sarah, who had googly eyes. Rachel then introduced Charles and her friends to each other. He politely smiled at each in turn but smiled longest at Rachel herself.

"Does anyone know why there were so many people at the gate this morning?" Charles asked after having a bite of his sandwich.

Sarah took a large gulp of water and said, "Adam Franks. We've been hearing rumors that he is coming here this year."

"Really?" Charles asked, his voice cracking. "I gotta go," he said, rushing out of the cafeteria and towards the auditorium.

"That was weird," said Natalie.

"I wonder why Charles freaked out at Adam's name," said Rachel, half to herself. Then she came out of it and continued to talk to her friends.


End file.
